sum was paid over to the family of the deceased, and was perfectly satisfactory to the Kroo nation.

9. A short time after the destruction of the Spanish slave factory, Mr. Ashmun discovered that a plan had been formed, between the captain of the Clarida, some of the native chiefs, and a French slave dealer on the St. Paul's, for violating the engagement by which the slaves originally destined for the pirate were to be delivered over to the Colony. He was induced, in consequence, to break up two other slave factories, and to offer to the chiefs concerned in the transactions of the Clarida a bounty of ten dollars for each slave, which, in pursuance of their agree. ment, they should resign to the colonial agent. The consequence of this was, that one hundred and sixteen slaves were soon received into the Colony as freemen.

10. At the close of this year the agent presented to the Managers a complete view of the condition, relations, character, and prospects of the Colony. He stated that health had been for some months restored; that adults, resident for some time in Africa, preferred its climate to any other, and enjoyed as good health as in America, and that the settlers generally lived in a style of neatness and comfort. Two commodious chapels, each sufficient to contain several hundred worshipers, had been erected and consecrated to God.

11. A small schooner had been built, and put in the rice trade between Cape Montserado and the factories at the leeward, adapted to the passage of the bars of the rivers on that part of the coast. The militia of the settlement was well organized, equipped, and disciplined. In addition to the valuable tract of country purchased on the St. Paul's, the right of occupancy and use had been obtained to the lands at the Young Sesters, and at Grand Bassa, and factories established at both of those places. Five schools, exclusive of Sunday-schools, were in operation.

12. The people were obedient to the laws; their moral character had improved; the preponderance of example

and of influence was on the side of virtue; and the Colony was, in reality, a Christian community. He observed that as "the great secret of the improving circumstances of the Colony is in the controlling influence of religion on the temper and happiness of the people, I should greatly wrong the cause of truth by suppressing a topic of such leading importance.

13. "The holy Author of our religion and salvation has made the hearts of a large portion of these people the temples of the Divine Spirit. The faith of the everlasting Gospel has become to them the animating spring of action, the daily rule of life, the source of immortal hope and of ineffable enjoyment. Occurrences of a favorable or desponding aspect are regarded as dispensations of the Almighty, and followed with corresponding feelings of gratitude or humiliation."

14. He testified to the good effects of the Colony on the neighboring tribes. They had been treated as men and brethren of a common family; they had been taught that one of the ends proposed in founding civilized settlements on their shore was to do them good; they had learned something of the great and interesting truths of the Christian religion, and sixty of their children had been adopted as children of the Colony. No man of the least consideration in the country would desist from his importunities till at least one of his sons was fixed in some settler's family.

PROSPERITY OF THE COLONY.

1. On the 4th of January, 1826, the brig Vine, with thirty-four emigrants, a missionary (the Rev. Calvin Holton), and a printer, accompanied by the Rev. Horace Sessions, an agent of the Society, sailed from Boston, and arrived at Monrovia on the 7th of February. A printing

press, with necessary appendages, a valuable supply of books, and other important articles were sent out in this vessel by the generous citizens of Boston, who assumed the entire expense of the printing establishment for the first year.

2. The Indian Chief, with 154 persons, left Norfolk on the 15th of February and arrived on the 22d of March; 139 of these emigrants were from North Carolina. In this vessel Dr. John W. Peaco went out as United States agent for the recaptured Africans. He was also employed by the Society to act as assistant agent and physician of the Colony.

3. The entire company which arrived in the Vine were soon attacked by the worst form of African fever, and about half their number, including Messrs. Sessions, Holton, and Force (the printer), fell victims to its power. A large majority of this company of emigrants were pious, steady, industrious, and intelligent; and the young men, who in the spirit of Christian benevolence had accompanied them, were worthy to become martyrs in such a

cause.

4. Of the emigrants who came in the Indian Chief, only three out of the whole number (and two of these small children) died in the course of the season, while the remainder suffered very little during the period of acclimation, and were soon actively engaged in the laborious duties of a frontier life.

5. A tract of land lying along the Stockton Creek and St. Paul's River was surveyed, and as early as June no less than thirty-three plantations on the creek and seventyseven at Caldwell were occupied. Cheered and animated by the thriving condition of the Colony, and the prosperous settlement of the newly arrived colonists, the agent wrote to the Board for more emigrants. "If they come from the South," said he, "they can not come very unseasonably in any part of the year. More funds, more activity, more emigrants, and I am satisfied."

CHAPTER XXVI.

COLONIAL WAR AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE.

1. A SPANISH schooner, the Minerva, while waiting for the collection of her cargo of 300 slaves, at Trade Town, had committed piracy on American and other vessels, and obtained possession of several recaptured Africans belonging to the United States agency in Liberia. Mr. Ashmun, as agent of the United States, demanded of the Spanish factor and native authorities of that place the restoration of these Africans, and threatened, in case of refusal, "to destroy, as soon as Providence should grant him power, entirely and forever, that nest of iniquity." The demand was treated with contempt. Intelligence of the character of the Spanish schooner was communicated by Mr. Ashmun to the commander of the French brig of war, who soon captured her, though her establishment on shore, at which 276 slaves were ready to be shipped to America, remained unmolested.

2. Early in January, goods were landed at Trade Town from a French schooner, the Perle, sufficient for the purchase of 240 slaves, though in April she had obtained but 126. A brigantine, the Teresa, from Havana, armed with seven large carriage guns, and manned with forty-two men, with goods for the purchase of 300 slaves, arrived in March, landed about one third of the cargo, and had commenced her traffic.

3. Three slave factories were in full operation at Trade Town, guarded by two vessels, mounting between them eleven carriage guns, and having a complement of sixty men and twenty more on shore, all well armed; when, on the 9th of April, arrived at Monrovia the Colombian armed schooner Jacinto, Captain Chase, who, in accordance with the instructions of his Government, offered to

cooperate with Dr. Peaco (then principal agent of the United States for the recaptured Africans) and Mr. Ashmun, in any plan they might adopt for the punishment of these offenders.

4. The offer of Captain Chase was accepted; and on the 10th of April, Mr. Ashmun, accompanied by Captain Cochran, of the Indian Chief, who generously offered to become his aid, and thirty-two volunteers of the colonial militia, embarked in the Jacinto, and arrived off Trade Town on the 11th, where they had the happiness to find anchored the Colombian brig of war El Vincidor, Captain Cottrell, mounting twelve guns, which had the same afternoon captured, after a short action, the brigantine Teresa.

5. Captain Cottrell agreed to unite his forces with those of the Colony and Jacinto in an attack on the place. It was resolved to attempt a landing on the morning of the 12th, on the bar of the river in front of the town, where the passage is only eight yards wide, lined on both sides with rocks, and across which, at that time, the surf broke so furiously as to endanger even light boats, and leave scarce a hope of the safety of barges filled with armed

men.

6. The Spaniards were seen drawn up on the beach within half musket range of the bar. The brig and schooner were ordered to open a fire on the town; but owing to their distance, their shot produced no effect except to disperse the unarmed natives who had assembled as spectators of the scene. The two boats, in advance, commanded by Captains Chase and Cottrell, were exposed to a rabid fire from the enemy, and were filled by the surf before they reached the shore. Their crews, though few of them landed with dry arms, forced the Spaniards back into the town. The flag-boat, in which were Mr. Ashmun, Captain Cochran, and twenty-four men, was upset and dashed upon the rocks, several of the men (among whom was Mr. Ashmun) injured, and some of the arms, with all the ammunition, lost. Captain Barbour, a colonist, observ